“Growing up was kind of tough. I grew up in a predominantly white, working-class area, and I was tan with an Afro. Drawing was something I initially did as an escape, to deal with issues that I had as a kid.”

“When invited to speak about my work, I like to start with showing a photograph of my younger self with my brother and sisters. In the photograph I’m about nine years old with a little afro, brown skin, and Michael Jackson shorts standing next to my very blond and blue-eyed brother and four sisters. This is the beginning of my story.”

As the only mixed-race child in a family full of blonde, blue-eyed siblings, she always felt different. Perhaps that’s why, from an early age, Martin has been asking herself the same question: Who are you? The existential angst followed her to Central Saint Martins, where she studied graphic design. It was a time when she describes herself as an angry and confused college student. “Growing up in a white working-class environment and not feeling in control of your future or environment or potential can be frustrating,” she notes. To express herself, the artist developed a character named Hangman. “It is a kind of robot-shaped character and I would tag it all around London,” she explains. “Hangman was a businessman in his former life and he decided to cut the noose—home environment, the class system, the prejudice, and people’s low expectations.